Advice needed: Cheap laptops Lancaster

[Don_Preston]

Hello,

My old faithful laptop of 8 years is finally showing signs of its age. So I'm in the process of looking around for a replacement in the budget price range, and wondered which you'd suggest. I don't play games and would like one that'd be quite a good investment (IE survive longer than 2 years).

As for price, perhaps anything under £300 would be a good ballpark figure. Which laptops would you recommended to lil ol' me?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

If you want a brand new cheap budget laptop that's actually quick, a good battery life, a good screen, a good keyboard, a good trackpad, it's difficult to find one under £300 that will do the trick. This isn't looking at it from a snobbery perspective either, but just what's available on the market.

I would recommend the Acer Aspire V13 V3-371 which you can pick up for £300-£350.

It is very slim and light, handles tasks competently, has a good batterly life, screen is serviceable, keyboard is very good. Trackpad is perhaps the only weakness, as the trackpad is both a button and a trackpad, and I find the cursor suddenly veering off if you don't use it right- but that might be personal preference.

I wouldn't bother with a Chromebook style laptop as while you get a good price upfront, they're so limited and retrograde as to be questionable value even then.

[Don_Preston]

I would recommend the Acer Aspire V13 V3-371 which you can pick up for £300-£350.

as the trackpad is both a button and a trackpad

Cheers for the quick reply. Bit swayed by the trackpad button business. I'm guessing you could connect an external mouse in a USB though?

I suppose I don't mind adjusting my price range, but it involves a bit more saving.

[checkoutgirl]

I think Dell are very good at the 300 price range. I'd try for a new Dell Inspiron with the Intel Core i5 sticker on it. It's a good bit of kit and I've seen them going for €350 brand new in Dublin town recently. €350 is about £300 British sterling pound squid in old empire money. Good value for a sturdy machine.

[syntaxerror]

If you want a brand new cheap budget laptop that's actually quick, a good battery life, a good screen, a good keyboard, a good trackpad, it's difficult to find one under £300 that will do the trick. This isn't looking at it from a snobbery perspective either, but just what's available on the market.

Yes, at that kind of budget you might get something thats good for a bit, but I don't think its going to be a good investment. I think there's a lot of computers that are cheaper than they ought to be, where the cost has been subsidised to allow manufacturers to remain competitive. There's a lot of crap out there. Have a look on Ebuyer if you haven't already, there's a lot there to choose from.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Cheers for the quick reply. Bit swayed by the trackpad button business. I'm guessing you could connect an external mouse in a USB though?

I suppose I don't mind adjusting my price range, but it involves a bit more saving.

Yeah it has USB ports. The track pad is a fairly minor niggle. It's not as good as others I've had but once you learn its ways, it's OK.

By the way, don't expect a disc drive to come with it. That's another drawback to consider, though at the same time the machine runs a lot cooler through not having one.

The alternative is to try a local computer store who do refurbished laptops. These tend to be on the extremely cheap end, but may still do browsing OK, and give you some utilities with it that even this laptop doesn't have, such as a disc drive.

[imitationleather]

Ooh, nevermind!

[Johnny Textface]

http://www.dell.com/learn/uk/en/ukdfh1/campaigns/splitter